Father, as I come to sit with You this early evening, I would ask that You give me clarity of mind that it might not be swayed by distractions but be focused wholly on You. May my spiritual ears be attuned to Your word. Amen.
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I would consider my wife Karen to be an iced tea connoisseur. Many times, a major contributing factor in where we go to eat is if they have good iced tea! There are places we go that may have good food but will be our last option because they only have tea served from a soda fountain or have no tea at all. Yep, we go where they have good iced tea but we (and I know many who will be shocked!) …we only drink unsweet tea, preferring to sweeten it ourselves.
Jesus, how often do I have an unsweet spirit? I may not be feeling well or things just may not be going my way. Someone may have said or done something that did not sit well with me. I may not “taste” awful but I am sure that I am distasteful. And honestly what kind of reflection is that on You?!
You spoke of being “light to the world” (Matthew 5:14) and the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13) and I’m sure that being sweet would fit right into this mindset.
Many either drink sweet tea or unsweet tea sweetened with artificial sweetener. There may be some out there that will drink it with no sweetener at all, but I would imagine those individuals would be few and far between.
I truly believe that, as a whole, people are starving to interact with individuals of true authenticity. This world is just too full of fake, thinly veiled shysters. Those kinds of people are trying to take all they can get away with and give absolutely nothing in return except pain, hurt and confusion.
Lord Jesus, as Your ambassadors in the world, may we not be sickeningly sweet (there’s nothing much nastier than mistakenly putting artificial sweetener into sweet tea!) and most importantly may we be authentically sweet with absolutely nothing “artificial” about us. As you greeted Nathanael in John 1:47, may You say of us “…there is nothing false in him!” (Good News Translation) Our world – those standing right beside us – need to experience genuine love. And, boy, do we have the ultimate source! So be it and amen!
June 17th, 2019, Mon, 6:24 am
